Shows / NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
These podcasts are my discussion of NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day. These are brief (3-5 minute) audio summaries of the picture posted on NASA's Picture of the Day website: APOD. Video versions of these are available on YouTube. I use these as the introduction to each of my introductory astronomy classes. Students will be able to access them here to review what was discussed in class. I appreciate any comments or suggestions which can be sent to: wagnerastronomy@gmail.com.
Episodes
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 05 - Planet Lines Across Water
In today's image, we see lines of reflected light from planets and our Moon as seen across the surface of the Mediterranean Sea.My podcasts are available in…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 04 - Spin Up of a Supermassive Black Hole
In today's image, we see an artist's conception of the accretion disk and jet of a supermassive black hole. Recent measurements have shown that black holes are…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 03 - Titan: Moon over Saturn
In today's image, we see the large moon of Saturn known as Titan. This is the only moon in the solar system with a significant atmosphere and the only object…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 02 - Young Star Cluster NGC 346
In today's image, we see a young star cluster, NGC 346, located in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The energy from the hot stars in the cluster shapes the material…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 May 01 - MESSENGER's LAST Day on Mercury
In today's image, we see an image from the MESSENGER spacecraft. The center of this region is the expect place on Mercury where MESSENGER crashes into the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 30 - A Happy Sky over Bufa Hill in Mexico
In today's image, we see three solar system objects in the sky which form a smiley face in the sky. These include the thin, waning crescent Moon, the planet…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 29 - Saturn's Rings Appear to Disappear
In today's image, we see six images of Saturn taken from 2020-2025. Over this time, the rings system tilt changes which leads us to be unable to see the rings…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 28 - Gum 37 and the Southern Tadpoles
In today's image, we see the Gum 37 nebula which is part of a molecular cloud in which stars are forming. The tadpoles are regions of higher density which…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 27 - IC 418: The Spirograph Nebula
In today's image, we see a planetary nebula known as the Spirograph Nebula. A planetary nebula is the end state of a star much like our own Sun. The core…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 26 - Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5335
In today's image, we see an example of a barred spiral galaxy with a distinct bar running through its central regions. These are a relatively common type of…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 25 - Asteroid Donaldjohanson
In today's image, we see the asteroid Donaldjohanson which was recently visited by the Lucy spacecraft. This craft will fly by several asteroids and will…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 24 - NGC 6164: A Dragon's Egg
In today's image, we see the nebula around a hot, young O-type star. This is the type os star what will eventually (in a few mission years) end its life in a…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 23 - An Almost Everything Sky
In today's image, we see a number of things in the sky including our own Milky Way galaxy, the zodiacal light, the aurora, and even a meteor. My podcasts are…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 22 - Terminator Moon: A Moonscape of Shadows
In today's image, we see and image of the Moon, but not a single image - this is multiple mages stitched together to give a better idea of the structure on the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 21 - Galaxy Lenses Galaxy from Webb
In today's image, we see a galaxy lensing another galaxy lined up directly behind it. When the alignment is perfect, the more distant galaxy will appear in an…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 20 - The Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared
In today's image, we see the nearby star forming region known as the Orion Nebula. The image is a combination of visible and infrared light images. My podcasts…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 19 - Painting with Jupiter
In today's image, we see an image from the Juno spacecraft currently orbiting Jupiter. The image has been modified using a digital oil painting filter to give…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 18 - Comet C/2025 F2 SWAN
In today's image, we see a comet currently visible with binoculars or a small telescope in the sky. Comet SWAN will be making its perihelion (closest approach…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 17 - Virgo Cluster Galaxies
In today's image, we see the Virgo galaxy cluster, the nearest large galaxy cluster to our own local group of galaxies. This includes the giant elliptical…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 16 - Halo of the Cat's Eye
In today's image, we see the Cat's Eye nebula. The is an example of a planetary nebula. Here we look at an image which enhances the outer layers to make them…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 15 - Planetary Nebula NGC 1514 from Webb
In today's image, we see a planetary nebula as imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope. A planetary nebula is the end state of a star much like our own Sun…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 14 - The Galactic Center in Radio from MeerKAT
In today's image, we see the region around the center of our galaxy as imaged by an array of radio telescope in South Africa. The inset image is a small…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 13 - An Unusual Hole in Mars
In today's image, we see a region of Mars including a hole where a meteor may have punched a hole through the Martian surface and into some caverns below. If…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 12 - Moon Near the Edge
In today's image, we see our Moon near the edge of a building in Manhattan. The moon is bright enough to be visible in the day, especially during certain…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 11 - The ISS Meets Venus
In today's image, we see a thin crescent Venus and the International Space Station as they pass close to one another in the sky.My podcasts are available in…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 10 - 38 hours with the M81 Group
In today's image, we see a deep exposure of the M81 group of galaxies. The two most prominent galaxies here are in the slow process of a galaxy merger that…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 09 - HH 49: Interstellar Jet from Webb
In today's image, we see HH 49, a Herbig-Haro object caused by the jet of material being expelled from eh region around a young star. The object at the tip of…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 08 - Moon Visits Sister Stars
In today's image, we see the moon in conjunction with the Pleiades star cluster. These conjunctions (and occultations) will occur over the next few years…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 07 - NGC 4414: A Flocculant Spiral Galaxy
In today's image, we see an example of a flocculant spiral galaxy, which is a galaxy without distinct spiral arms.Note: In the audio, the image is incorrectly…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 06 - Moonquakes Surprisingly Common
In today's image, we see an image from the Apollo 11 mission with a seismograph being set up on the lunar surface. Detections if seismic waves have show that…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 05 - The Gargoyles' Eclipse
In today's image, we see the partial solar eclipse from this past week, where our Moon passed in front of our Sun, blocking out a portion of its light. This…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 04 - Hickson 44 in Leo
In today's image, we see the compact group Hickson 44. Compact groups of galaxies are galaxies seen in the same small area of the sky and are often related to…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 03 - The Da Vinci Glow
In today's image, we see the thing crescent moon, only a day or so after the new moon. While only a small portion of the Moon is directly illuminated by the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 02 - Jupiter and Ring in Infrared from Webb
In today's image, we see Jupiter, its faint ring, and several of its moons as imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope in the infrared.The date is misstated in…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 April 01 - A Double Sunrise from a Partial Eclipse
In today's image, we see a video showing the Sun rising in real time. The sun is partially eclipsed, so we see two distinct parts of the Sun rising over the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 31 - Parker: The Solar System from Near the Sun
In today's image, we see image in a timelapse from the Parker Solar Probe which studies then Sun. We will see six of the eight planets, a comet, and a star…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 29 - Stereo Helene
In today's image, we see one of the moons of Saturn, Helene. This is now as a Trojan moon which orbits at a Lagrange point - this is a stable position in the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 28 - Lunar Dust and Duct Tape
In today's image, we see an image from the Apollo 17 mission where the astronauts made repairs to their rover using duct tape. The repair to the fender kept…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 27 - Messier 81
In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as Messier 81. This is a relatively nearby galaxy, about 11.8 million light years away. Distances to nearby…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 26 - Star Formation in the Pacman Nebula
In today's image, we see the region known as the Pacman Nebula. This is a star forming region, showing dark globules within the nebula where stars are…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 25 - A Blue Banded Blood Moon
In today's image, we see three images of the total lunar eclipse from a week ago. The red glow if from light coming through the main part of Earth's…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 24 - A Total Lunar Eclipse Over Uruguay
In today's image, we see a timelapse showing the total lunar eclipse that occurred this last week. We can watch the stars and Milky Way become ore visible as…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 23 - Ancient Ogunquit Beach on Mars
In today's image, we see an are on Mars which once contained liquid water. Mars is no longer able to have water in liquid form because of its low atmospheric…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 22 - SuperCam Target on Ma'az
In today's image, we see an image of a rock on Mars. This rock was capped with a laser which can then be heard through the thin Martial atmosphere as a series…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 21 - The Leo Trio
In today's image, we see three galaxies in the constellation of Leo known as the Leo Triplet. These are three spiral galaxies but are seen in different…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 20 - The Solar Eclipse Analemma Project
In today's image, we see an analemma of the Sun, formed by taking an image of the Sun at regular intervals over the course of a year. The analemma gets its…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 19 - Blue Ghost's Diamond Ring
In today's image, we see a solar eclipse as seen from our Moon. In this case, it is the Earth passing in front of the Sun, blocking out its light. Here we see…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 18 - LDN 1235: The Shark Nebula
In today's image, we see the dark nebula known by its more popular name of the Shark Nebula.My podcasts are available in video form through this YouTube…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 17 - Thor's Helmet
In today's image, we see the nebula known by the popular name of Thor's Hemet. Much of the nebula is a bubble of material being expelled by a hot, young…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 16 - Venus and the Triply Ultraviolet Sun
In today's image, we see the transit of Venus from 2012, when Venus passed directly in front of our Sun. This event will not occur again until 2117.My podcasts…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 15 - Tololo Totality
In today's image, we see three images from the total eclipse from yesterday. The Moon appears this blood read color because of light bend by Earth's atmosphere…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 14 - Moon Pi and Mountain Shadow
In today's image, we see our Moon rising off in the distance as the Sun sets behind the observer. We can also see the shadow of the mountain against the…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 13 - The Protostars within Lynds 483
In today's image, we see the region in Lynds 483 where a pair of protostars are forming at the center with a great outflow of material into the surrounding…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 12 - NGC 772: The Fiddlehead Galaxy
In today's image, we see the galaxy known as the Fiddlehead Galaxy and also known by its catalog designation of NGC 772.My podcasts are available in video form…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 11 - NGC 1672: Barred Spiral Galaxy from Hubble
In today's image, we see the galaxy known as NGC 1672. This is an example of a barred spiral galaxy, much like our own Milky Way.My podcasts are available in…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 10 - NGC 1499: The California Nebula
In today's image, we see the emission nebula known as the California Nebula for its resemblance to the western coast of the Uniter States.My podcasts are…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 09 - Cyclones at Jupiter's North Pole
In today's image, we see an image from the Juno spacecraft showing the cyclones around Jupiter's North Pole. My podcasts are available in video form through…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 08 - Galaxies in Space
In today's image, we see three galaxies as imaged from the International Space Station from its low Earth orbit. My podcasts are available in video form…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 07 - Planetary Nebula Abell 7
In today's image, we see the planetary nebula known as Abell 7. A planetary nebula is the end state of a star much like our own Sun which has exhausted its…
- NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
2025 March 06 - Starburst Galaxy Messier 94
In today's image, we see the spiral galaxy known as Messier 94. This is a galaxy that has recently undergone a burst of star formation. It is also an active…